Railway car construction



Nov. 3, 1936. A. E. SMALL RAILWAY CAR CONSTRUCTION Filed June 6, 1955 Patented Nov. 3, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE RAILWAY CAR CONSTRUCTION poration of Delaware Application June 6, 1935, Serial No. 25,288

3 Claims.

The invention relates to railway freight cars and more particularly to side and end walls for open top railway cars, such as hopper and gondola cars, though the construction is adaptable for walls of house cars, such as box, automobile and refrigerator cars. The construction is also adaptable for use as roofs, floors, hopper doors and side doors for railway cars. A roof or a floor comes within the meaning of the term wall as used in the specification and claims herein.

Railway freight cars are generally designed so that the side walls are girders or trusses to carry part of the weight of the lading and the car itself to the body bolsters which transmit such load to the trucks. Such side walls also retain the load in the car. It is desirable to make the inside horizontal width of the car as wide as possible to increase the cubical capacity of the car but the outside width of the car is limited by tunnels and projections adjacent the track so it becomes imperative to make the side wall as thin horizontally as p-ossible'consistent with strength requirements.

Open top railway cars are frequently built with the vertical walls comprising spaced apart upper and lower frame members connected at spaced intervals by vertical posts with panels filling the spaces between the posts and frame members,

which construction forms a girder and retaining Wall. It has been proposed to bulge the central parts of these panels outwardly to increase the cubical capacity of the car, such as shown in the Hart Patent No. 1,623,591 of April 5, 1927.

One of the objects of the invention is to provide a wall for open top railway car which provides a greater cubical capacity of the car (that is, as far as the wall is concerned) over side walls now in use consistent with outside width limitations.

A further object is to secure the major portion of each wall sheet to the stakes in a plane adjacent to but Within the exterior plane of the stakes so that the stakes protect the wall sheets from being damaged when the car is in an unloading machine.

A further object of the invention is to provide wall sheets which can be formed by bending only; that is, Without pressing or deforming, which deforming may necessitate heating the sheet or cause local stretching.

A further object of the invention is to attach the wall sheets to the vertical post in such a manner as not to require flanging or otherwise deforming the sheets.

Rolled metal sheets have been developed of relatively thin material of relatively high tensile strength and high resistance to corrosion and it is felt that these relatively thin sheets must be protected and my invention applies more particularly to cars constructed of such materials.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary part of a wall of a railway car incorporating my invention.

Fig. 2 is a section on line 22 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a section on line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 shows one of the stakes.

Fig. 5 shows one of the wall sheets.

In the form of my invention illustrated I have merely shown spaced apart upper chord 2 and lower chord 4 and one of the posts 6 with parts of the adjacent wall sheets B|ll showing how these elements are associated to obtain the objects of the invention.

The major portion H of each wall sheet is in a plane adjacent to but within the exterior plane l2 of the stakes 6 so as to protect the wall sheets 8-4 0. The upper part I5 and sometimes also the lower part l6 of the wall sheet slopes inwardly to adjacent the interior plane i 8 of the stakes. The upper 20 and lower 2| margins of the wall sheet may be attached to the respective chords in any convenient manner. The vertical margin 24 of the major portion II and the sloping part It: (or parts 15-46) are secured to the stakes 6 preferably by means of the flanges 26, which may be an integral part of the stake, and which preferably conform to the vertical contour of the wall sheet.

Fig. 4 shows the post comprising spaced apart ribs 30--3l and a connecting web, which web has a major portion 32, an upper sloping part 33 and a lower sloping part 34, all conforming with the vertical contour of the wall sheet. The flanges also preferably conform to the vertical contour of the wall sheet. The upper part 36 of the flange is secured to the upper chord 2 and the lower part 31 of the flange is secured to the lower chord 4.

Fig. 5 shows how the wall sheet is formed by simply bending it along parallel lines without any deforming. The wall sheet is preferably secured to the inside of the flanges 26, upper chord 2 and lower chord 4, respectively, so that the wall sheet 8 may be removed from the car without disturbing the chords or the stakes.

The accompanying drawing illustrates the preferred form of the invention, though it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, as it is obvious that various modifications thereof, within the scope of the claims, will occur to persons skilled in the art.

I claim:

1. A wall for a railway car comprising an upper chord, a lower chord, spaced apart stakes connecting said chords, and a wall sheet having the major portion thereof in a plane adjacent to but within the exterior plane of the stakes and having the upper portion thereof sloping inwardly to adjacent the inner plane of the stakes, each stake being provided with a flange conforming to the contour of the wall sheet, the vertical margins of said major portion and said sloping portion being secured to said flanges, said wall sheet being secured on the inside of said flanges, upper chord and lower chord, respectively, whereby the wall sheet may be removed from the car without disturbing the chords or stakes.

2. A wall for a railway car comprising an upper chord, a lower chord, spaced apart stakes connecting said chords, and a wall sheet having the major portion thereof in a plane adjacent to but within the exterior plane of the stakes and having the upper part thereof sloping inwardly to adjacent the inner plane of the stakes, the vertical margins of said major portion being secured to the stakes, each of said stakes comprising spaced apart ribs and a connecting web which conforms to the contour of the wall sheet.

3. A wall for a railway car comprising an upper chord, a lower chord, spaced apart stakes connecting said chords, and a wall sheet having the major portion thereof in a plane adjacent to but within the exterior plane of the stakes and having the upper portion thereof sloping inwardly to adjacent the inner plane of the stakes, each stake being provided with a flange conforming to the contour of the wall sheet, the vertical margins of said major portion and said sloping portion being secured to said flanges, said wall sheet being secured entirely on one side of said flanges, upper chord and lower chord, respectively, whereby the wall sheet may be removed from the car without disturbing the chords or stakes.

ARTHUR E. SMALL. 

